About Dork
Editorial Standards & Policies
Dork is an independent UK music magazine. This page sets out how we work: how we verify what we publish, how we handle corrections, how sponsored content is fenced from editorial, and how to flag mistakes. It applies to everything on readdork.com, the Dork app, and the print magazine, except where a piece is clearly labelled otherwise.
Ownership and funding
Dork is independently owned and operated. We are funded by display advertising, clearly-labelled paid partnerships, Dork+ subscriber memberships, and print magazine sales.
No advertiser, label, PR agency, artist team, or paying subscriber has any influence over our editorial. We do not accept payment or other consideration in exchange for positive coverage.
Sourcing and verification
- News. Verified against an official artist, label or PR statement, a verified social account, or a reputable secondary source. Where a story rests on a single source, we say so.
- Reviews.First-person editorial. Writers experience the work (album, gig, festival) themselves. If they haven’t, we don’t run a review.
- Features and interviews. Direct quotes come from interviews we conducted or material we have permission to use. We do not fabricate or run second-hand quotes without flagging them.
- Catalogue pages. Drawn from editorial sourcing plus public databases (MusicBrainz, Discogs, Wikidata) and licensed structured data. Non-editorial facts are signposted with their source.
Sponsored and paid-partnership content
- Guest posts live under
/features/guest-post/and carry a Sponsored content badge. Their JSON-LD includes aSponsored Contentflag. - Paid partnerships live under
/features/partnered/and follow the same rules. - Display ads served against organic editorial do not affect the editorial.
We do not sell positive reviews, listicle placements, or homepage features.
Corrections
- Email editor@readdork.com with the URL and what’s wrong. Response within 28 working days.
- What counts: factual errors in names, dates, credits, attributions, claims of fact, or quotes.
- What doesn’t:disagreement with a review opinion. We don’t change a star rating because a label or artist team objects.
- How we mark them: a dated correction note at the foot of the article, and
dateModifiedon the structured data is updated.
We do not delete articles to hide errors. We correct, attach a note, and timestamp it.
Right of reply
If you believe a piece has unfairly criticised you or your organisation, contact editor@readdork.com. We consider every request on its merits. We do not grant pre-publication review of editorial.
Unnamed sources
We default to on-the-record reporting. Where an unnamed source is necessary, the editor verifies the source’s identity and agrees terms of attribution in writing. We do not use unnamed sources to advance speculative criticism.
Diversity in coverage and authorship
We cover music made by people across every gender, sexuality, race, class, nationality, religion, ability and age, and commission contributors from a similarly broad spread. We do not gate coverage by an artist’s commercial size, label affiliation, or PR budget — independent and unsigned artists run alongside major-label releases.
Bylines
Every piece carries a byline naming the writer. Team-written pieces are bylined “Dork Magazine”. We do not publish anonymously.
Reader feedback and complaints
Complaints about editorial content, conduct, advertising, or accessibility go to editor@readdork.com — subject line [Complaint] helps surface them. Response within 28 working days.
Contact
- Editorial, corrections, complaints, right-of-reply: editor@readdork.com
- Advertising: advertising@readdork.com
Editor: Stephen Ackroyd. See our masthead for the full team and ownership details.
